[FM18] AFC, A Chainsaw Massacre (2019-2036) // Basque Bonanza (2037-2040)

[Deisler26]

Phew. instant heartbreak avoided.

[MarcxD]

 

19 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Phew. instant heartbreak avoided.

Only just!

[MarcxD]

Playoffs Second Round, AFC v. FC Dordrecht

Good performance in the matches against Dordrecht, with a total of 4 goals for youth striker Rijssel (yp2a).

In the third round we shall have to beat FC Volendam to stay up. They finished 4th in the Jupiler League and beat Excelsior in their second round play-off.

[DazRTaylor]

Fingers crossed...

[MarcxD]

1 minute ago, DazRTaylor said:

Fingers crossed...

Thank you!

[MarcxD]

Play-Offs Third Round, First Leg: FC Volendam v. AFC

Huge result, Walian has had a very poor year so far but these goals have almost made up for that!

 

[MarcxD]

Play-Offs Third Round, Leg 2 - AFC v. FC Volendam

Another tight game but it was enough!

Another year in the Eredivisie!

[DazRTaylor]

Quality!  

[Deisler26]

Great news!

[patrikholm]

Been following this since the start, nice to see you stay in the Eredivisie!

[soyos]

Could you please post your database settings (leagues and size)?

[MarcxD]

4 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

Quality!  

 

4 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Great news!

 

1 hour ago, patrikholm said:

Been following this since the start, nice to see you stay in the Eredivisie!

Thanks guys, and welcome! 

53 minutes ago, soyos said:

Could you please post your database settings (leagues and size)?

I am willing to try, can't remember what I did tbh!

I only loaded the Dutch leagues, because I'm playing on a low budget laptop and I have a serious distaste for long loading times. The Database is made up of 12K players, so I think I opted for a large database plus perhaps all players in Holland... not exactly sure though.   

[Rikulec]

Great job, hoping for progress next season.

[MarcxD]

13 hours ago, Rikulec said:

Great job, hoping for progress next season.

Thank you, It would be a safe bet that we're going to struggle again though!  

[MarcxD]

Season Review 2022-2023

Best Eleven's:

I've still mostly used the same core players for a few seasons now, and it's not likely many new players will be available. Next year more youth players will become part of the squad, hopefully not to my detriment.

In the beginning of the season we did not receive any tv money I don't think, but this makes up for that!

That money has gone to good use, although I'm not sure about that expansion, 785 extra seats for a million... we will need to expand soon after that or build a new stadium.

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2023-2024

Not very surprisingly we're predicted to finish last again, with the same odds. 17th or higher will be the goal again.

17th is ambitious as it is with these budgets! 

And so I've only signed one player after his contract ended, a new midfielder to partner with Thom Haye.

Improvements approved here, with the upcoming improved facilities and stadium the club keeps on growing. 

Pretty good pre-season although once again the assistant arranged friendlies against relatively poor opposition.

[MarcxD]

August 2023

A win in the first home match, any points in away games are nice as well so pretty pleased with this start to the league.

Remarkably both Ajax and PSV have lost two of their first 3 games. 

[MarcxD]

September 2023

Really poor performances, but at least we have kept our opposition from doing any good themselves. I can imagine the press and analysts hating on me! In the Feyenoord game we had zero shots. Zero. The winner against lower league OFC in the cup came in the 93rd minute... to be fair I did play a almost completely youth player only team.

Still not in the bottom 3, and we have conceded remarkably few goals. At some point we shall have to start scoring goals though!

Things are not helped by one of my starter central defenders missing out for most of the season...

[DazRTaylor]

A solis start to the season.

[john1]

Decent start  Shame De Lange, is out for the season

[MarcxD]

16 hours ago, john1 said:

Decent start  Shame De Lange, is out for the season

Thank you, yes it is a shame. Central defense is one of the positions I don't really have any promising youngsters to play either, or this could've been an opportunity for that.

17 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

A solis start to the season.

Cheers.

[MarcxD]

October 2023

Really good month, with a couple of relatively easy home matches where we were able to gain a lot of points. We got destroyed by Vitesse, but did go through to the next round of the cup.

9 points gap between us and 18th. 

[Minuy600]

On 10-11-2017 at 17:48, MarcxD said:

Play-Offs Third Round, First Leg: FC Volendam v. AFC

Huge result, Walian has had a very poor year so far but these goals have almost made up for that!

 

Has the Kras Stadion expanded or something? They only have 7200 seats IRL.

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, Minuy600 said:

Has the Kras Stadion expanded or something? They only have 7200 seats IRL.

Yep!

(and almost got a tycoon!)

 

[MarcxD]

November 2023

Only 3 games but more good results.

While we're far from safe it is nice to have a 13 point buffer already. Zwolle though, ouch.

[DJ-2000]

Great start to the season! Hopefully you can keep it up and stabilise yourself as a Eredivisie club. 

[MarcxD]

1 hour ago, DJ-2000 said:

Great start to the season! Hopefully you can keep it up and stabilise yourself as a Eredivisie club. 

Thank you, I certainly hope so!

[MarcxD]

December 2023

Ouch, things have taken a down turn.

Zwolle has won a bunch of games and our buffer is almost gone. 12th still looks good though.

Another one.....

[MarcxD]

January 2024

Things are not getting better so far. Two friendlies arranged by the assistant, two Eredivisie games. 

Not yet down to the bottom 3, a buffer of 5 points remains. I really hope we can manage a win soon.

A little update to the dynamics screen after the month ended seemed appropriate, even though I didn't do any transfers. Almost the entire team supports me, so there's that. A bunch of youth players have made it to the first team squad and get a lot of playing time. Perhaps that's hindering our performances in the league but there's just very limited growth in the players we've already got and Amsterdam-born players that are an improvement or have some future are hard to get.

"Daley Blind, this is me again. If you would be interested leaving Tottenham (!) after 6 years of service (!!) for AFC?"

 Getting back to the youth stuff seems like the best plan at the moment.

[MarcxD]

February 2024

Perhaps a pivotal month. The first two games were always going to be impossible to win, but beating Heracles and Zwolle back to back could be the difference between us getting relegated and staying in the league.

6 points between us and 16th, 10 points to 18th. 9 Games to go.

[MarcxD]

Youth Intake 2024

It's that time again - another "Golden Generation". I'm guessing I'm getting them so often now since the club is growing, as are all the facilities, and the youth players are relatively strong compared to the first team. The players here that aren't from Amsterdam will be the "foreigners" of this save, haha.

Fair is fair, when you look at the stars it's not hard to call this a spectacular intake. The level of players at the club is hardly great though, so 4 stars are going to be needed to become a decent eredivisie player, if that! The Belgian-Thai player is pretty random, my HoYD is Belgian though and of course Belgium is a neighbouring country (but hardly close to Amsterdam).

Probably the most exciting prospect of this save so far, a lot of things to like - his personality, some key attributes, and most of all no huge weak spots except perhaps his jumping reach - a usual regen striker flaw. Rijssel (yp2a) is pretty much first choice striker now, so he'll have to fight for his place!

Am very interested to see how this guy develops, I've not had any hugely exciting left wingers so far so that's always good. He also might be the whitest guy alive.

I've had multiple right wing regens though, so he'll have his work cut out for him. Forget the defensive stats the game has highlighted, he looks a decent winger.

The Belgian Kid! Some great stuff here, his personality, all round midfielder attributes - which is probably why he can fit in so many roles right away.

Back who can play on both sides, good defensive attributes but dribbling and crossing aren't terrible either. Interesting.

Another striker - some interesting stuff but his problem will be that the competition is just a bit better. 

A central defender with at least some potential, finally. Lot of work to be done but he might very well make it one day.

[MarcxD]

March 2024

Apart from the youth intake it wasn't a very fun month, although I guess a 4-5 is more fun than a 0-0 from some perspectives. 1-1 Against our big Amsterdam brothers Ajax is a lovely result though, although they aren't the Ajax that have made it to the EL final in 2017, that's for sure.

AFC in thirteenth (and Ajax in sixth), with 5 more games to go. Only 4 points separate us from the play-offs, and only 6 points between us and automatic relegation, so we still need to get some points in the next two months.

[MarcxD]

April & May 2024

Very happy with the closing to the season, another two wins have kept us safe.

In the end that means a 13th place is our result. Not too bad!

AZ Win the title, but no team dominated in the league. Ajax 6th, Feyenoord a very poor 7th with 50 points.

[DazRTaylor]

Job done.  👍

[andychar]

Great season, its a stepping stone to push on next season and not have to worry about beating the drop!

[Minuy600]

Oh boy, wonder how VVV will cope with CL in their minature stadium.

[Deisler26]

Great work. I see VVV are overpowered again..

[MarcxD]

10 hours ago, DazRTaylor said:

Job done.  👍

Thanks!

9 hours ago, andychar said:

Great season, its a stepping stone to push on next season and not have to worry about beating the drop!

Thank you, I'm afraid I'll still have to worry about it next season but hopefully we can keep improving!

5 hours ago, Minuy600 said:

Oh boy, wonder how VVV will cope with CL in their minature stadium.

Haha yeah, I've taken a look and they have not had a stadium expansion/new stadium yet. Can't really imagine it IRL, perhaps they would have to play in a different stadium.

3 hours ago, Deisler26 said:

Great work. I see VVV are overpowered again..

Thanks, they're the 9th best Dutch club now according to reputation. They've had two take overs already but no tycoon to blame for this success. 

[MarcxD]

Season Review 2023-2024

Overachievers of the year!

A huge financial boost after the season, the money is probably growing thanks to the reputation rise:

Very good news for Dutch football (and very different from the way things seem to be going in real life!)

Pretty much all that money has been spent right away though, for a variety of reasons:

Besides all the facilities upgrades, as I predicted, another stadium expansion right away. We'll probably be filling this very soon and since this is the maximum expansion available a new stadium will be coming soon after this one.

Best Elevens:

(the amount of games the subs played is not correct, this might be because they've also played games for the reserves in an inactive league before being transferred over to the first team squad - they've played more than this).

Huge year for Rijssel (yp2a) especially since he's now the first choice striker, sure he's not quite performing amazingly yet but he's developed very well so this should've been worth it. Besides, it's not like Walian was/is performing miracles either.

Expect more yp's next year in this same screenshot.

I'm hugely popular with my players and there seems to be more of a balance between the various groups. Not sure why my skin has darkened though!

Shortly after the season Haye convinced Bayazit to stay and Francis convinced Haye to stay. No unhappy players so far, although NAC has tried to poach Verhoeven (yp4c) - the first time other clubs have been interested in some of my first team players really and tried to pay money for them.

In many ways this season was an important one, since not only did we finish mid-table, a group of youth players have made it to the first team squad. With the decent youth intakes from the last 3 years this should hopefully continue over the next couple of seasons.

[MarcxD]

For the first time we're going on a training camp. And the board have decided to splash the cash, I just hope the players can take the extremely long trip to Zaanstad.

[Deisler26]

Noa Benninga was offered to me, but I just couldn't see him being good enough for my midfield. 

[MarcxD]

2 minutes ago, Deisler26 said:

Noa Benninga was offered to me, but I just couldn't see him being good enough for my midfield. 

I feel you, he's not that good! The fact that he was willing to join me pretty early on and that he's born in Amsterdam made him a logical choice to sign in the Jupiler League. He hasn't disappointed really. He's still part of the squad since there just aren't that many players from Amsterdam willing to join me that are an actual improvement. Youth players might take his spot but not quite yet.

[MarcxD]

Pre-Season 2024

After not getting anything last season we've got a bit of a boost this year in budgets, a part of which I've used.

Two first-team improvements, a central defender in Paul Fosu-Mensah (Timothy's little brother) and Mees de Wit. Both are former Ajax players, as are most players I've signed during this save so far.

Should both improve our first team a lot, hopefully.

The friendlies were awful, in all reality. If we're losing to Almere City and Telstar still, things are not looking good at all. We did have the majority of chances and possession in those matches, but come on! Nancy are in Ligue 1 right now and we did beat them, but this is honestly not making me feel all that hopeful.

Still predicted to finish 18th. 

One of the youth players from last intake has been the object of many offers from AZ, this being the highest. I've refused them all. In a weird way this is a very good sign, he should be really good?!

[MarcxD]

August 2024

Oh dear. While I'm happy the team is able to score goals now, home games against De Graafschap and Roda JC are the kind of games we need to win to get the points. Not quite the start I had hoped for, especially with a new much better central defender (on paper anyway).

We're one of 7 teams that have been unable to win their opening 3 matches, so at least there's that.

[MarcxD]

....

The same injury as I've had last season... (twice!) but now the best player of the team, who might very well never recover from this! 

[MarcxD]

September 2024

The Heerenveen game with the Haye injury was a disaster, even though we scored 2 goals for the 4th time in a row... The 1-0 derby win against Ajax though... miraculous. Substitute Ezra Walian delivered that win with a goal in the 95th minute!! 

Sixteenth but that win did give me some more confidence in the team. 

[MarcxD]

October 2024

A very good month which was actually really hard when you look at the opponents we had to face, luckily most were home games. Feyenoord, AZ and even VVV can be placed among the better teams in the league and NAC is not doing badly after getting promoted either. Not losing against them was surprising but nice. In the cup we beat lower league HFC with a lovely hattrick by Sam Vos (yp5a) ! Scored more in that one game than Rijssel has done in the rest of the season, perhaps the changing of the guard will come sooner than expected...

Up to 13th now.

[patrikholm]

Beating Ajax and the fans goes 

[MarcxD]

59 minutes ago, patrikholm said:

Beating Ajax and the fans goes 

Me Too. The press called me the Andorran Pardew.

[MarcxD]

November 2024

Wow, what a month. While I was disappointed with losing to Dordrecht, since they only just got promoted and are near the bottom of the league, I was elated with the rest of the results, 3 strong wins, 10 goals scored in those matches!

A very good midtable position for now, although things are close and the teams have played a varied amount of matches.